From Media Planner Magazine
July 1, 2009

The total number of ads being skipped via DVRs is currently only about 6%, but that number will rise to between 16% and 18% in two years, according to DVR Research Institute, a consulting firm based in California.

The number of households with DVRs stands at about a third of total TV households; that number will rise to 50% in 2011, the researcher says (via Media Life). The Leichtman Research Group believes, on the other hand, that DVR penetration won’t reach 50% until early 2012.

A refusal by the Supreme Court to hear a case about DVR technology earlier this week potentially paves the way for wider DVR adoption. Read More…

Posted under DVR, Research, TV & Cable

From MediaWeek
By Anthony Crupi
June 29, 2009

A new study issued by the DVR Research Institute suggests that advertising executives have a keen understanding of the threat posed by time-shifting devices yet are uncertain about what they can do to counteract ad-skipping.

The four-part report, “Advertising in the DVR Age,” reveals that 83 percent of marketers surveyed believe the increased adoption of DVRs will negatively impact the effectiveness of TV advertising in the course of the next three years. That assertion was echoed by ad agency executives. Per the study, 77 percent of agency higher-ups said that DVR usage will prove to be the greatest challenge to the current ad model. Read More…

Posted under DVR

Study: About 16% of commercials will be skipped by 2011
From The Hollywood Reporter
By Paul Bond
April 28, 2009

About 6% of TV commercials in the U.S. are fast-forwarded because of DVRs, reflecting about $5 billion in what some consider wasted spending. By the end of 2011, about 16% of commercials will be skipped.

The data come from a study titled “Advertising in the DVR Age,” which the DVR Research Institute will release Friday. It bases its conclusions on a poll of 200 top U.S. advertising executives and on averages from other research firms.

There are about 30 million DVR households, a number expected to rise to 50 million — or 49% of U.S. households — by the end of 2011. When a show is time-shifted, as many as 70% of ads are avoided, and as users get accustomed to their DVRs, they watch more and more TV in time-shifted mode.

Read the full article here.

Posted under DVR, Research, TV & Cable

From Media Post News
by Joe Mandese
April 10, 2009

It’s long been known that peak usage of time-shifting TV viewing technologies such as DVRs, video-on-demand, Slingboxes, and other devices, tends to occur during prime-time when the greatest concentration of the most desirable “counter-programming” is scheduled. But a new analysis released Thursday by DVR marketer TiVo finds that the volume of time-shifting activity is rising, and is concentrating around television’s so-called “Family Hour,” – 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The analysis, which comes from TiVo’s syndicated Stop//Watch audience ratings service, analyzed time-shifted viewing of the Big 4 broadcast networks during the month of February, and found that time-shifting has become the dominant viewing behavior in TiVo households during all of network prime-time (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), but that it is actually increasing for the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. timeslots, and tens to taper off at 10 p.m. Read More…

Posted under DVR, Research, TV & Cable

From Media News Daily
April 9, 2009

Interpublic Group of Co.’s Magna forecasts that in five years, DVR usage will grow more than 70%, to 51.1 million U.S. TV homes.

Magna estimates this will reach 43% of all U.S. TV homes in 2014, up from 27% as of the end of 2008. Overall, the projection is that DVRs will contribute a 4% erosion in total viewing impressions across all dayparts over a ten-year period — from 2004 to 2014. Read More…

Posted under DVR, Research, TV & Cable

From Media Life Research
By Diego Vasquez
April 9, 2009

Two weeks ago, Nielsen released a study showing that time spent watching online video was nowhere near as significant as many had thought, with television accounting for 99 percent of screen time. It seems media buyers already knew that. A new study from The Convergence Consulting Group, an Ontario-based media consultant, finds that only a very small percentage of TV dollars are migrating to the internet, and that won’t change much in the coming years. Just 2.4 percent of U.S. broadcast/cable network TV advertising revenue in 2008 came from the internet, and that will rise to 4.6 percent in 2011. What’s more, we may see broadcast and especially cable networks putting fewer shows online for the public and instead walling them off for subscribers in order to protect their sales based on programming revenue. Still, the report predicts that viewers may simply be more interested in DVRs than online viewing anyway, as they can then fast-forward through commercials rather than being forced to watch them, as is the current online model. Convergence predicts that DVRs will be in half of all households by 2011. Brahm Eiley, president of The Convergence Consulting Group, talks to Media Life about growth potential for online TV, why it’s not that promising, and what impact DVRs will have on the marketplace. Read More…

Posted under DVR, Online, Research, TV & Cable

From TiVO
For the complete press release and ratings, click here.

ALVISO, Calif., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services and advertising solutions for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that at least half of the viewing for network series premiers in October 2008 was on a Timeshifted basis, according to its Stop||Watch(TM) ratings service.

Of the seven new broadcast series that debuted, six drew at least 50% of their audience on a Timeshifted basis. In fact, 52% of viewers who tuned in to the month’s highest rated premier, ABC’s Life on Mars, chose to record the program and watch it later. NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy and CBS’s Eleventh Hour had 54% and 51% of their viewers, respectively, tune in on a Timeshifted basis. Timeshifted viewers also skipped commercials at high rates. Five of the seven premiers had at least 60% of their commercials fast-forwarded – viewers who Timeshifted the Life on Mars Premier skipped 65% of the commercials that aired with the program. Read More…

Posted under DVR, Research, TV & Cable

From MediaPost Publications
By David Goetzl
November 4, 2008

At nearly 40%, the San Diego market has the country’s highest percentage of DVR homes–27% of all U.S. households now have the ad-skipping devices. The data from Nielsen also shows that 29 markets have DVR penetration rates topping 30%.

Among San Diego’s 1.1 million homes, 38% have the ad-skipping devices. That’s just above the 37% in Austin, Dallas and Orlando. Nationally, as of this month, there are 31 million DVR homes–up 12% since July.

San Diego is the 28th-largest market in overall TV households, but moves into the top 20 in total DVR homes with 402,000. Cox Communications is the dominant cable provider in the market. Read More…

Posted under DVR, TV & Cable

From Research Brief, The Center for Media Research
October 1, 2008

New consumer research, from Leichtman Research Group, reports that 27% of TV households in the United States have at least one Digital Video Recorder (DVR), and 30% of those households have more than one DVR, and that 87% of DVR owners would recommend their DVR service to a friend. 81% rate their DVR 8-10 on a 10 point scale (with 45% rating the service as 10). Read More…

Posted under DVR, Research, TV & Cable